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US 12,391,380 B2Granted
Compact personal flight vehicle
AssigneeHunter William Kowald
InventorHunter William Kowald
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An apparatus includes a frame and a plurality of propellers coupled to the frame and configured to produce sufficient thrust to allow the apparatus to hover. Each propeller from the plurality of propellers having a horizontally oriented blade and a first propellor from the plurality of propellors overlapping a second propellor from the plurality of propellers in a vertical plane.
Claims54
A personal flight vehicle, comprising:
- a frame, comprising either a single continuous component or multiple components combined to form a structure, wherein the frame may optionally include additional components configured to extend, modify, adjust, and/or reconfigure the structure in multiple configurations;
- one or more bindings for retaining and/or engaging a pilot with the flight vehicle;
- one or more propulsion systems functionally connected to the flight vehicle and operatively associated with one or more power sources;
- a controller operatively associated with one or more propulsion systems, enabling the pilot to control operation of said propulsion systems, used to generate lift for flight;
- wherein each propulsion system remains in a fixed orientation relative to all other propulsion systems during operation;
- and
- wherein the orientation of the personal flight vehicle is configured to be controlled in pitch, roll, and yaw solely by movement of the body of the pilot relative to the airflow generated by the one or more propulsion systems, such that all propulsion systems are controlled to operate at synchronized levels at all times during flight.
4 more elements
A method for piloting a personal flight vehicle, comprising:
- providing control signals directly or indirectly to one or more propulsion systems generating lift, each fixed in orientation relative to the others;
- controlling the pitch, roll, and yaw of the vehicle solely by shifting the body of the pilot relative to the airflow generated by the propulsion systems;
- maintaining synchronized thrust levels across the propulsion systems generating lift at all times during flight.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.